Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
5
SURFING IN VARBERG
From Apelviken bay, 2km south of the centre along the Strandpromenaden footpath, it's easy
to go wind- kite- and wave surfing.
Surfers Paradise
at Södergatan 22 (
T
0340 67 70 55,
W
surfers.se) rent out all sorts of boards and equipment to get you out onto the water. They're
open from June to August (Mon-Fri noon-6pm, Sat 10am-2pm, Sun noon-4pm). There's also
a good sandy beach at Apelviken for easy access into the sea.
7.30am-7pm, Fri 7.30am-6pm, Sat 7am-5pm, Sun
9.30am-6pm.
Ì
Grappa
Brunnsparken
T
0340 179 20.
This
intimate, candle-lit restaurant is the place to come for
Mediterranean food in Varberg: the pork fillet with roast
Italian sausage and lentils (259kr) and steak with bacon
ragout and roast peppers (345kr) are both excellent.
Mon-
Fri 4pm till late, Sat noon till late.
Harry's
Kungsgatan 18.
The most popular place to drink
in town with a large open-air terrace. Live music in summer
and regular happy hours. There's also a choice of burgers
and other light meals.
Mon & Tues 4-11pm, Wed & Thurs
4pm-midnight, Fri & Sat 4pm-2am.
Restaurang Stadt
Kungsgatan 24-26
T
0340 69 01
00.
Top-notch restaurant inside the
Stadshotell
with
chandeliers and marble pillars: the food is equally
impressive with a choice of modern Swedish classics such
as Arctic char, saddle of veal and stuffed chicken breast.
Mains
225-359kr.
Mon-Fri
11.30am-1.30pm
&
7-10pm, Sat 7-10pm.
Zorba
Västra Vallgatan 37
T
0340 52 02 99.
Close to
the tourist office on Varberg's main road, this Greek
restaurant is worth seeking out for its delicious Hellenic
specialities for around 170kr, though the interior
furniture is uninspiringly flat-pack.
Wed-Fri 5pm till
late, Sat & Sun noon till late
.
Falkenberg
It's a fifteen-minute train ride south from Varberg to the decidedly likeable medieval
town of
FALKENBERG
(falcons were once used for hunting here, hence the name), with
some lively museums and a gloriously long beach. It's a well-preserved little town that
really comes alive in July and August, when most of the tourists arrive.
Falkenberg has a long-standing reputation as a centre for
fly-fishing
on the Ätran
River. A succession of wealthy
English gentlemen
came here throughout the nineteenth
century; one such devotee, London lawyer William Wilkinson, went so far as to write a
book about the experience,
Days In Falkenberg
(1894). In it, he described the place
where the well-to-do visitors stayed as “an ancient inn with a beautiful garden leading
down to the river”. This building, one of the few here to have escaped the dozen or so
town fires which devastated the town over the centuries (most recently in the 1840s),
now houses
Falkmanska Caféet
, the best café in town (see p.153).
These upper-class Englishmen brought considerable wealth with them, and had a
tremendous influence on the town. Predictably enough, they made no attempt to adapt
to local culture: Falkenbergers had to learn English, and throughout the latter half of
the nineteenth century, baby boys here were named Charles instead of the Swedish
Karl, while the most popular girl's name was Frances, after Wilkinson's daughter.
English influence can be seen even today: near the post office there is a British
telephone box donated by Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire.
St Laurentii kyrka
Storgatan 50 • Mon-Fri 10am-6pm
he
old town
, to the west of the curving river, comprises a dense network of low,
wooden cottages and cobbled lanes. Nestling among them is the fine twelfth-century
St Laurentii kyrka
, its ceiling and interior walls awash with seventeenth- and eighteenth-
century paintings. It's hard to believe that this gem of a church was - in the early
twentieth century - variously a shooting range, a cinema and a gymnasium; indeed its
secular usage saved it from demolition after the Neo-Gothic “new” church was built at
